Impromptu. Oration. Extemporaneous. Prose. Informative. To most people, these words either seem like a foreign language or something highly educational and therefore boring. However, to forensicators, these are just the different events they choose to compete in throughout the season.
Many students competing in forensics are also debaters. This gives them an edge to their competition level when the next season rolls around in November. Although both require research and good public speaking skills, there is more involved in preparing for competitions each week than just staring at a laptop screen and writing out speeches.
“Lots and lots of practice and peer evaluation,” said Aswathi Pradeep, senior debater and forensic competitor, “and a lot of research,” are what makes a successful forensics season.
Pradeep has been involved in forensics for two years in order to improve her debate seasons. Coach Jared Zuckerman is a huge help to all of the students competing. He has coached for a total of six years, three of those as a head coach.
With Zuckerman as the coach, Pradeep has high hopes for her fellow peers. Some of those hopes are, “that the program grows immensely,” and that “there is a strong leadership on whom to rely on.”
Coach Zuckerman’s goals for his students is very simple and that being that students, “will improve their own abilities.”
For junior novice Jake Novicoff he hopes to do just that. He loves the supportive and helpful advice the team gives to one another. There is a family-feeling within the team, where one can be themselves and learn to express what they believe.
“My goal is to experience as much as I can in forensics and find out what I enjoy doing,” says
Novicoff. “Hopefully I’ll be a state qualifier.”
Sophomore Mariem Towakoli has qualified for state in previous seasons and she thoroughly enjoys it.
“I like forensics because it’s not something that comes easily,” said Towakoli. “You have to practice to be good at it and it builds self-confidence as well as great friends.”
Students have competitions nearly every weekend, and can choose both the tournaments they want to go to, and the events they compete in. There are large and small tournaments that always bring about good competition that makes the students stronger.
“Lawrence hosted a tournament larger than the actual state tournament,” Zuckerman said. “We finished 5th overall out of about 40 schools.”
With such a result, Zuckerman sees this as a positive outlook for the rest of the season.
“For a young team, I’ve not been surrounded by this much talent since I’ve started coaching.” Zuckerman said. “They are dedicated and very enthusiastic.”
